


3 Strikes

by Jaseish (Kymopoleia)



Category: LoliRock (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, dark iris au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 01:16:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10629138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kymopoleia/pseuds/Jaseish
Summary: This isn't the Iris you're used to, and even Auriana and Talia can't save her now.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> that summary sounds super cryptic but hold out with me here  
> i haven't had the energy to do full chapters lately so they're gonna be very short! crossposted on tumblr at spookyghostnerd.tumblr.com

When Iris sang, the world shattered to a standstill around her.

Windows broke, children froze, and candies exploded. Stuffed animals found themselves knotting up and shredding their seams, and the very air around her seemed to crackle with angry energy.

She’d like to say that this was nice, that she could sing and get boys to leave her alone or that she enjoyed breaking stuff, but none of it would be true. Her voice was a curse.

And Nathaniel, bless his heart, knew that.

“Come on Iris, I think you should try out for this band! Your voice is amazing, and people deserve to hear it.” Even his voice is smiling at her, and while she does know her voice is pretty, she also knows the repercussions that come with it.

“Nate, you know why I can’t. I’ll break something and they’ll laugh at me! What I need is a job where I don’t have to talk.” She sulks harder, face sinking into her folded arms.

“No one is going to laugh at you.”


	2. Chapter 2

“No one is going to laugh at you.”

“Yeah right.”

Nathaniel pushes the smoothie into her vision, her hair spilling over the counter to her right and her left eye just barely getting a peek of the orange and green paper cup. “Stop whining, your voice is amazing and they’d be lucky to have you. Besides, it’ll get your aunt off your back! Don’t you want that?”

Iris sits up slowly, reaching to pull her hair into a high ponytail while she stares at the smoothie cup. “I don’t know, Nate. You know I really wanted that job at the theater,” She pauses, gesturing and looking for the right words.

“Then you bombed that by singing while you cleaned the bathrooms and flooded the place.”

Her face flushes with anger, a frown appearing. “And I thought we agreed you wouldn’t ever say that out loud ever again?” If her hand wasn’t stuck in her hair right now she would hit him.

He grins cheekily and rinses out the blender. “You know you love me.”

Iris rolls her eyes back at him and pulls the smoothie toward her for a long, judgmental sip. “You’re lucky I do.”

Nathaniel leans against the counter behind him, his hand and the rag inside the blender and his legs crossed at the ankle. “But seriously, if you love me you’ll atleast try out. If they laugh at you I can make a ‘mixed’ smoothie when we get to your place. And if they don’t want you, then well. Atleast you tried.”

“More like atleast I failed.” She leans back in her own chair, crossing her legs and resting her palm on the denim. 

Nathaniel sighs. “I’m being serious. Come on, do it for me.”

Iris sips the smoothie, looking away.

“Will you?”

Iris leaned forward, resting her elbows on the counter. He steps forward as well, setting the rag and blender down finally.

“Where’s it happening?” She finally sighs.

Nathaniel grins and slides the flier to her. “The community theater where Doug had his ballet recital when we were ten.”

“The community theater where we saw Peter Pan when we were twelve?”

“The community theater where I had my first kiss when I was thirteen.”

“The community theater where I punched Missy in the face when I was fifteen?”

“The one and only.” He laughs and holds up a fist for her to bump. Iris rolls her eyes and grins back as she lifts her own fist, the bruised knuckles only twinging a little bit as they brushed his.

“Now get your ass out there and sing!”

The smoothie bar around them freezes, all eyes turning to his raised fist and quickly falling grin.

Iris laughs and pats the counter as she stands up. “Maybe keep the pep talks to a minimum when you’re at work?” She can’t get the stupid grin off her face, letting his excitement rub out on her. “And… um.. you missed a spot.” She points at the splatter on the counter from where he’d bumped into the blender.

Nathaniel awkwardly pulled his fist back in and straightened the blender. “Go, go. Shush.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Go, go. Shush.”

Iris walks out of the smoothie bar with a grin stuck on her face and her hand on the strap of her bag, eyes rolling a bit as someone approaches the counter to purchase a refill on something with bananas.

The sun is beating down with a vengeance today, and she’s kind of glad that they don’t have softball practice on thursdays. Coach Brown was a hardass, but she knew when to lay off.

There’s a lot of people around her, but that’s not a bad thing. Iris had her places she needed to get to, and they had theirs, and it was just fine. She sips the smoothie and gets a pep in her step, her hips swinging and hair flouncing, backpack bumping the base of her spine occasionally.

She’d been fired the night before from a babysitting gig, unfortunately for both her and the mom. When the little girl was cuddling into her sheets, she’d begged Iris to sing her a lullaby and… well… the world had crashed to a halt, as had that particular career. Subsequently, today had turned into a lazy day. She’d donned a sleeveless hoodie and jeans, a pair of ballet flats, and painted her nails haphazardly at four in the morning after a nightmare. Good times, good times.

The world around her is slow and lazy in the heat, the people moving with purpose but not with ambition. Iris glances at the flier she hadn’t had time to look at, noting that the auditions would be ending in about two hours, lucky her.

Iris stopped at the street corner for a moment with the rest of the crowd, eyes blinking slowly as traffic slugs by and people check their phones and glance boredly between lights. Summer was far from her favorite season due to the sticky heat, the tourists, the end of the school year, the sickly sweet smells wafting through the streets like poison, and made even worse by the fact that she’d just graduated and wouldn’t get to go back to school when it was over. But at the same time, there was something magical about it. She didn’t have to be anywhere, and the only person who knew where she was would be Nathaniel.

Well, she did have somewhere to be.

The foot traffic starts up again and she finds herself being swept to the theater, the one and only. The line is long and she suddenly feels a pit in her stomach form… she hadn’t realized she wanted this until she got here.

Iris sighs and closes her eyes, stepping into the spot at the back. “I can do this.”

**Author's Note:**

> oh and related... doing writing commissions. 7$ for a 3-6k drabble or 20$ for four drabbles that length/ a 4 chapter fic up to 15k.


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